Every workday while the set is new, Insight is taking a quick look at another deck featuring cards from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. A previous trip to the plane had given blue-red mages Thing in the Ice, and now there's "Thing in the Egg," which is starting to look every bit as broken. Let's build an Egg shell!
It's no surprise that there is a strong Izzet shell in Standard as it contains a lot of particularly strong blue and red cards right now. Let's take a look. You begin with , because it's the fair 2021 version of . You add a full playset of on top, which is easily the best top-end spell in the format. Taking an extra turn and putting extra bodies on the battlefield is outrageously strong as it can both help you close out the game or save the game while defending.
We pair that with four copies of each of our threats: and . Goldspan is arguably the best red card in the format, basically a creature version of due to its mana generation ability. We well use the mana too, for example to cast the aforementioned Epiphany.
The Egg is the biggest addition from Midnight Hunt. You need to cast seven mana worth of instants and sorceries to flip it. Is it a lot? Not in this deck. First of all, you can just curve turn two Egg into a three-mana spell on turn three and a four-mana spell on turn four. But all the spells you play in a given game will add up, and the Egg is decent at keeping you alive. Not to forget, one is enough to hatch it. And what hatches is a strong 4/4 Dragon that allows you to anything whenever you cast an instant or sorcery.
In order to make the deck work, we need a proper assortment of such nonpermanent spells. In addition to the previously mentioned Epiphany and Iteration, we run 28 others. This includes a staggering ten modal double-faced cards to maximize both our land and spell count. This in turn includes four , which can transform an Egg on its own as well.
Quadruple gives us a strong mana sink and a four-mana spell with which to feed our Egg. Actually, because the Egg takes an interest in mana spent rather than mana cost, Deluge's flashback also is enough to turn it into Ashmouth Dragon by itself. Between Smashing, Deluge, and Epiphany, there's no worry not to transform even Eggs drawn late.
The rest of the deck is interaction—an assortment of additional burn and some s. All of it is pure gas.
| Blue-Red Thing in the Egg by Riley Hicks, Hooglandia Standard Open Top 8 |
|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard |
|---|
| | |
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
